Wen Jiabao's Indo-Pak visit

Wen Jiabao’s visit focuses more on economic than political diplomacy

In the present global perspective China, the giant neighbor of India, witnesses its growing importance in the world trade and politics. India, another giant in Asia, is also going ahead with her trade and military power. She is vying with China to curb her importance and occupy the same position as China or to supersede her. For strategic reasons these two big neighbours have a souring relations between them. The border dispute led them to wage a war in 1962 which brought victory for China. Keeping all the practical perspectives in consideration the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao made his three -day important tour to India which was followed by his Pakistan visit. Ahead of Wen’s visit, Mr. Zhang Yan, the Chinese ambassador to India had said December 13 that relations between the two countries are very fragile and need special care. Really China-India relations are very fragile and very easy to be damaged and very difficult to repair. Therefore, they need special care in this information age. China is India’s largest trade partner with two –way trade rising from $18.7 billion in 2005 to $51.8 billion in 2008 and expected to cross $60 billion by 2010 end. Wen and Singh have exchanged diplomatic platitude about their bilateral relations and places in the world but gave no indications that any of the mostly China made issues that had seriously soured their relations recently would be resolved any time soon. As noted by an IANS news service report on December 16 after the meeting between the two prime ministers the two sides took a long range view of their relationship and focused on economic diplomacy to offset divergences on contentious issues. My current visit is aimed at prompting friendship expanding cooperation building on our past achievements and opening up new dimensions for mutual benefit and common development of the two countries. In reality however, trade and economic relations were the primary focus of the visit. Almost nothing was achieved on the very contentious issues India looked forward to raising with Wen. That was only to be expected for the main area of agreement between the two sides is the desire of both nations to boost economic ties which India’ Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Vishu Prakash called the bedrock of India- China relations .Contentious issues were no doubt referred to but merely glossed over. In this connection, Wen made the right noises about China and India being cooperative partners instead of rivals while not forgetting to call for efforts to further enhance bilateral trade links and jointly fight protectionism as reported by the official China Daily .
Prime Minister Manomohan Singh and Wen talked for about an hour and half at Hyderbad House to forge strategic consensus on a range of issues including the problem of stapled visas for residents of Jammu and Kashmir, the widening trade deficit, global terrorism, nuclear non-proliferation and climate change. At the end of it, the two leaders were reported to have agreed that there was enough space in the world for the development of both India and China and enough areas for both to cooperate. A joint communiqué issued at the end of talk said that the two sides decided to establish the mechanism of regular exchange of visits between Heads of Government , welcomed the opening of a telephone hotline between the Chinese primer and Indian Prime Minister, agreed on regular consultation on issues of importance to both sides, endorsed the launching of a mechanism of annual exchange of visits between their foreign ministers and agreed to initiate a strategic economic dialogue to enhance macro-economic policy coordination and try to bring their annual trade to 100 million US dollar by 2015.
India was reported to have expressed displeasure at China’s virtually questioning Indian sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir by giving stapled visas to residents of the state seeking to visit that country and China accelerated investment in Pakistan –controlled Kashmir that New Delhi sees as strategic threat. China, while claiming to take the Indian concern seriously only said that officials of the two sides should have in depth consolations so that this issue can be resolved satisfactorily. China is building dams on the Brahmaputra and if India doesn’t voice out against this then the whole of north-eastern region of India could one day become a desert if India is deprived of the water flowing from Tibet’s glaciers. On December 15 Wen conferred China-India Friendship Awards to the Indian personalities from various fields for their contribution to promoting India-China friendship and understanding . However, Senior Congress leader and MP Karan Singh declined the award. He felt that a Parliamentarian should not accept such decorations as he runs the risk of being seen as farvouring one particular country. The serious issues such as the stapled visa and boundary disputes souring relations between the two sides were again raised by India’s External affairs minister Mr. SM Krishna.After the bilateral talks the two sides signed six pacts in areas ranging from media and cultural exchanges to green technologies the sharing of hydrological data on the Sutlej River and collaboration between the river banks. Singh and Wen did not hold a joint press conference perhaps because it may prove to be embarrassing to both for the lack of any meaningful progress on the very contentious issues. Of course, they made about fifty agreements mostly centering on trade and commerce.
International affairs experts comment that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Pakistan will bolster its confidence in facing the current challenges and will be a good counter to US president Barack Obama’s recent trip to India . The visit will send a reassuring signal to Pakistan which is surrounded by a host of problems, challenges and difficulties. It will serve as a good counter to Obama’s high profile visit to India. Dr. Riffat Hussain, head of department of Defense and Strategic Studies of the Quaide Azam University Islamabad told when questioned on exportations of Wen’s trip at a time Pakistan was facing economic difficulties and serious threat of extremism. In Pakistan, China announces its cooperation in 36 development projects; it’s only ‘all-weather’ partner and sign agreements in energy, infrastructure and other sectors.
Wen’s three-day India visit centered on Beijing’s efforts to further expand its burgeoning trade relations with New Delhi. But Pakistan has nothing to worry about Sino-Indian relations as Dr. Lodhi is confident of the strength of Pak-Chinese relationship. Answering to a question on Indian quest to get permanent membership at the UN Security Council, Riffat said Chinese leader’s visit would give the two countries an opportunity to discuss a joint strategy in this regard. China will watch carefully how Obama’s endorsement of India’s claim to representation the SC plays out in coming months.
Frequent contacts between Pakistan and China at the highest level speak of an ever growing relationship between the two sides because China over the decades has emerged as a trusted and reliable friend of Islamabad. He continued “It comes at a critical time for Pakistan, the region and also for China which is being targeted by hawks in Washington as a rising challenger.”“Wen’s visit will solidify the already robust relations between Islamabad and Beijing and direct these towards an expansion in trade and investment ties, “Dr. Maleehad Lodhi said who served as Islamabad envoy to both London and Washington. Today China is in the best position to meet Pakistan’s development and investment requirements having emerged as global economic power and a role model for developing nations.

Md. Masum Billah
Program Manager: BRAC Education Program
(The writer regularly writes on various national and international issues )
Cell: 01714-091431
Email: mmbillah2000@yahoo.com